Jill Bodach is a former journalist who spent ten years covering the police beat for a daily newspaper in Connecticut. While she liked the excitement and busyness of the newsroom, she decided to try something new and went to graduate school where she received a MS in English. As part of her two-year program, Jill received a teaching fellowship. While she was adamant that she never wanted to teach, she took the fellowship and realized that she belonged in the classroom. For the past 16 years, Jill has taught college writing, literature and creative writing courses.

When she isn’t teaching or grading or driving her kids to all of their activities, Jill enjoys exercising, reading, binge-watching shows on Netflix, and sending memes to her best friend on Instagram. Jill is an avid runner who has run several half-marathons and recently walked a marathon with a team of 100 people to raise money for Dana Farber and The Jimmy Fund in honor of a former student, Charlie Capalbo. Her goal is to run a full marathon. She is currently reading I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore. Her favorite binge-worthy shows are Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Schitt’s Creek, and Dead to Me.

Jill is also an aspiring novelist whose short stories have been published in The Madison Review, Noctua Review, and Folio. She is currently at work on a novel about an Iraq war veteran. Jill received an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She loved the Midwest and misses Iowa City, but is glad to be back in her home state of Connecticut, near her family. Jill is a single mother of four children ranging in age from 11 to 5, and five fur babies — three dogs and two cats.

She is interested in writing about navigating divorce, dating in your 40s, mental health, and the challenges of raising children in 2023.